The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) voluntarily deferred the implementation of its approved increase of interim maximum allowable revenue (IMAR) for the year in view of the pandemic.
This was announced by ERC chair Agnes Devanadera at a hearing conducted by the Senate committee on energy earlier this week.
NGCP’s IMAR, which is used to fund transmission projects and other grid investments based on the Department of Energy’s power development plan, is subject to ERC’s approval for every regulatory period.
IMAR caps the amount that the transmission company collects for the use of its services.
However, administrative concerns faced by the ERC in 2015 and 2016 which included constraints in the lack of available personnel and expert resulted in the delay of the reset process for NGCP’s fourth regulatory period.
The ERC said it approved on February 13 NGCP’s application for an IMAR of P47.1 billion this year from 2019’s P43 billion. The amount would fund projects that will lower power rates in the long-term.
However, following the enhanced community quarantine across the country in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Devanadera said “NGCP, on its own, informed us that they are not implementing” the approved IMAR.
The regulatory body added NGCP’s 2020 IMAR application was filed on October 2019 and is not supposed to reflect an increase in the transmission charge but would in fact lower the transmission rates by 4 centavos coming from 51 centavos of 2019.
